Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Texas

Collections help - lawn service

A close friend of mine owns a lawn service and unfortunately made the mistake of continuing to mowing several customer's lawns (approx.12) even after they refused to pay their invoices. In fact, he was so ''nice'' that he let several of them get 6 months behind before he finally stopped their service. Obviously he has mismanaged his business and has asked me to help him ''right the ship'' before he loses everything. One of the things I'm looking at is trying to collect on his nearly $12,000 of overdue invoices. In collecting from these clients, is it possible to threaten them with a lien on their home and then take them to small claims? Obviously we can take all of them to small claims but it may be easier to run a red flag up the pole in hopes of getting some action without going to court. Can I leverage the lien idea or is there a better way of approaching this? We could certainly employ a collections agency but their 30-40% cut may make a difference in him making ends meet or closing the business.

Any quick advice that can be offered would be greatly appreciated.


Asked on 6/21/04, 4:43 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Peter Bradie Bradie, Bradie & Bradie

Re: Collections help - lawn service

Forget the idea of threatening a lien. It won't fly, and you'd be threatening to do something you have no legal right to do. Your friend has a choice; either a collection agency, or a bunch of Small Claims lawsuits. If he goes the Small Claims route, he then has the problem of trying to collect on the judgment, assuming that he's successful in Small Claims.

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Answered on 6/21/04, 5:15 pm


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